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Spoilers ahead: NYT Connections puzzle #693 was published on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Start with the word grid and graduated hints below; the complete category answers appear farther down the page.
Spoiler warning: The complete answers to the NYT Connections puzzle for Sunday, May 4, 2025, appear below. If you are still solving, use the grid and hints first, then stop before the answer section.
The May 4, 2025 Connections grid
This was Connections puzzle #693. The 16 words were:
CHEWY NOODLE CARS DARTH
JAM BOBA TOUGH SHRED
SOLO DRY SUGAR BLUTO
TEA GENUS STRINGY MILK
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Hints for Connections #693
These hints progress from the gentlest clue to the most revealing. They identify the type of connection without immediately giving away every word.
- Yellow: Think of unpleasant ways to describe meat that was cooked too long.
- Blue: Think of a popular tea-shop drink and what goes into it.
- Green: Think of informal terms a guitarist might use while playing.
- Purple: Four familiar astronomical names have had their first letters changed.
Watch out for the Star Wars trap
The May 4 date makes one incorrect grouping especially tempting. CHEWY, DARTH, BOBA, and SOLO all suggest Star Wars characters or names: Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, and Han Solo. They look like an obvious group because May 4 is commonly associated with Star Wars Day.
That is the puzzle’s main red herring. Those four words do not belong together in the solution. CHEWY belongs with the meat-texture words, BOBA belongs with the bubble-tea ingredients, and DARTH and SOLO are used in different wordplay categories.
NYT Connections answers for May 4, 2025
Yellow: Qualities of overcooked meat
CHEWY, DRY, STRINGY, TOUGH
These are all unfavorable ways to describe the texture of meat that has been overcooked or poorly prepared. The group is straightforward once CHEWY is separated from the Star Wars bait.
Blue: Ingredients or components of bubble tea
BOBA, MILK, SUGAR, TEA
Bubble tea, also called boba tea, commonly combines tea, milk, sugar, and chewy tapioca pearls known as boba. The category uses familiar ingredients and descriptors associated with the drink rather than a single exact recipe.
Green: Informal ways to play electric guitar
JAM, NOODLE, SHRED, SOLO
A guitarist can jam with other musicians, noodle by casually experimenting with notes, or shred through fast and technically demanding playing. A solo is a featured guitar passage or performance.
Purple: Planet or dwarf-planet names with the first letter changed
BLUTO → Pluto
CARS → Mars
DARTH → Earth
GENUS → Venus
This is the most deceptive group because each entry is one letter away from an astronomical name after its first letter is replaced. Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet, so “planets” alone is not quite precise enough for this category.
Complete solution at a glance
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Qualities of overcooked meat | CHEWY, DRY, STRINGY, TOUGH |
| Blue | Bubble-tea ingredients or components | BOBA, MILK, SUGAR, TEA |
| Green | Informal ways to play electric guitar | JAM, NOODLE, SHRED, SOLO |
| Purple | Planet or dwarf-planet names with their first letters changed | BLUTO, CARS, DARTH, GENUS |
Why this puzzle was tricky
The grid combined several different kinds of ambiguity. CHEWY can function as a general adjective, but here it describes overcooked meat. BOBA and SOLO invite pop-culture associations, while DARTH looks like a character-related word instead of a disguised form of Earth.
The date strengthens the Star Wars misdirection, but it also provides a useful lesson for solving Connections: a group that feels unusually obvious may be deliberately planted to distract you. Before committing, check whether each word has a tighter relationship with another set. Here, the four meat textures and the four bubble-tea terms create stronger, more coherent groups than the Star Wars interpretation.
Want more Connections-style puzzles?
The New York Times Games: Puzzle Mania! is a related physical puzzle collection for readers who want more screen-free games. It includes an analog version of Connections along with other New York Times Games, but it is not a printed copy of the May 4, 2025 daily grid.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Frequently Asked Questions
Which NYT Connections puzzle was released on May 4?
The Sunday, May 4, 2025, puzzle was Connections #693. May 4, 2026 was a Monday and refers to a different puzzle, so this answer guide is for 2025.
What is the purple category in Connections #693?
The purple group changes the first letter of each entry to create Pluto, Mars, Earth, or Venus: BLUTO, CARS, DARTH, and GENUS.
Best Value
Are CHEWY, DARTH, BOBA, and SOLO the Star Wars group?
No. CHEWY, DARTH, BOBA, and SOLO look like a Star Wars group, particularly because the puzzle appeared on May 4, but they belong to three different official categories.
The Bottom Line
The answers to NYT Connections #693, played on Sunday, May 4, 2025, are CHEWY, DRY, STRINGY, TOUGH for overcooked meat; BOBA, MILK, SUGAR, TEA for bubble tea; JAM, NOODLE, SHRED, SOLO for informal guitar playing; and BLUTO, CARS, DARTH, GENUS for altered planet and dwarf-planet names. The Star Wars-looking set was the puzzle’s central red herring.
Quick Recap
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